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Food crisis in Niger

In response to a food crisis in Niger and
a call by the Jewish community to assist, American Jewish World Service
is working to identify local grassroots organizations that can help feed
people facing starvation, and to ensure that those most vulnerable to life-threatening
conditions will have access to medical care.

Through small localized grants, AJWS
will complement the work of larger international organizations already
providing large-scale food aid by improving the ability of local groups
to ensure that their communities will be served by the national relief
effort. AJWS will likely support rural women's groups capable of delivering
food to needy families unable to reach feeding centers, and work to ensure
that local clinics are supplied with lifesaving medicines so that community
doctors and nurses can treat and prevent diarrhea, a condition that is
often fatal for malnourished children.

Support our Niger Rapid Response Fund
now.

How did this crisis happen? Over the
past year, the world has not heard the cries for help coming from Niger.
Drought and locust invasions wiped out crops in one of the world's poorest
countries, leaving 3.6 million people, mainly children and the elderly,
on the brink of starvation. Now with the onset of a heavy rainy season,
communicable and waterborne diseases such as tuberculosis, malaria, measles,
diarrhea and cholera are adding an increased sense of urgency.

Government officials in Niger and international
aid workers say a slow response from donor countries to months of appeals
has allowed the situation to spiral to emergency proportions, sharply increasing
the cost of saving lives. Officials believe that approximately 2.5 million
people or 3,815 villages have reached an extremely vulnerable state and
require immediate food assistance.

Humanitarian agencies have responded
by stepping up massive food distribution programs, increasing support to
medical clinics and implementing therapeutic feeding centers for the most
malnourished. Donors have begun to flood the nation with overdue emergency
funds, but aid workers are still finding it difficult to reach all of the
communities desperately seeking assistance.